If you are looking for someone to thank if the Indiana Legislature moves legal advertisements (public notices) from newspapers to a state website, which will cost between $540,000 to $800,000 in taxpayer money over the next two years, get ready to thank our own Rep. Jennifer Meltzer, R-Shelbyville.
Meltzer filed House Bill 1312, the latest incarnation of taking away the public notice process that has worked for decades in Indiana, publishing legal notices in the state’s newspapers where they can be easily located and accessed by taxpayers.
These notices range from tax sales on foreclosed homes, changes of names, notices that a representative has been filed for an estate and notification to a parent that their child is about to be adopted by someone else. Government boards have legal notices for public hearings on big issues in communities involving environmental health, rate increases for utilities and annual reports of proceeds for nonprofits.
Bartholomew County recently published its tax rates in a legal advertisement in The Republic, available for every taxpayer in the county to peruse.
However, Meltzer’s bill would mean the state could move all the public notices from Indiana’s 92 counties into one big, expensive state website where they will be lumped together into a database.
There is a big advantage to the state and legislature to create a website like this — the state will easily be able to control your access to this information, and guess what, you all get to spend lots for time for this privilege of having to search through thousands of items to find what you are looking for on a daily basis. Happy hunting, taxpayers!
The state would need to hire one to four additional staff members, each costing $104,800, to onboard and for general upkeep of this website, according to state officials.
And while you’re thanking Meltzer for this additional expense with no added value for taxpayers, make sure to mention how much you appreciate this backward-thinking bill to Rep. Ryan Lauer, R-Columbus, and Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour. They supported it as well.
The biggest question of all is why does the state feel the need to hire a staff and rebuild the public notice process which is not broken and does not need to be fixed?
And why, when Gov. Mike Braun says he is trying to lower property taxes with his budget proposal, are legislators even considering adding a shiny new expensive website and staff members that adds to the state budget cost?
As some are asking, “Is it really a good idea to put these notices, which are extremely important to each community, in a place that many taxpayers can’t or won’t access?”
Probably not.
We hope the state legislature comes to its senses and leaves well enough alone. We don’t need this laughably large expenditure of a website to replace something that doesn’t need to be fixed.
Leave the public notices where they belong, in the state’s newspapers, easily accessible to the communities each newspaper serves. Legislators, the public will thank you if you do.
